About The Autoextremist

Author, commentator, influencer. The Consigliere. Minister of the High-Octane Truth. Editor-in-Chief of Autoextremist.com.

Peter DeLorenzo has been in and around the sport of racing since the age of ten. After a 22-year career in automotive marketing and advertising, where he worked on national campaigns as well as creating many motorsports campaigns for various clients, DeLorenzo established Autoextremist.com on June 1, 1999. Over the years DeLorenzo's commentaries on racing and the business of motorsports have resonated throughout the industry. Because of the burgeoning influence of those commentaries, DeLorenzo has directly consulted automotive clients on the fundamental direction and content of their motorsports programs. DeLorenzo is considered to be one of the most influential voices commenting on the sport today.

Detroit. Leading up to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis a couple
of weeks ago - and in intense discussions ever since - the Detroit
manufacturers have been dissecting their involvement in NASCAR with a
fervor not seen since, well, ever. NASCAR officials got an
in-person earful at The Speedway from various Detroit auto company
executives in attendance. The message? The financial numbers aren't good,
cutbacks are a certainty - and that means our NASCAR programs too - and
we will be discussing what shape our future involvement with NASCAR will
take in the coming weeks. Whether or not Brian France and Mike Helton
& Co. were surprised or not is immaterial (they shouldn't have been),
because NASCAR management left Indy with the realization that for the
first time in memory Detroit's involvement wasn't going to be
"automatic" for the foreseeable future. And it was sobering for
NASCAR and its teams.

When I said everything was on the table a couple of weeks ago for these
Detroit manufacturers and their NASCAR programs, I wasn't kidding, and
now these discussions have taken on an even more intense urgency.
National advertising, promotional support at the tracks, direct payments
to teams and personal services contracts with the drivers are all being
put under the microscope. But that's just the beginning, because beyond
the budget cuts, the Detroit manufacturers are using the opportunity
brought on by their dire financial straits to make NASCAR listen to some
serious proposals.

What are these proposals? Here are the main issues that GM, Ford and
Chrysler plan on discussing in the very near future with NASCAR
management in meetings to be held in Detroit:

1. Brand Recognition. It's no secret that there are factions
within these Detroit manufacturers who are none too pleased with NASCAR's
"CoT" and the fact that literally all brand distinctiveness has
been eliminated with the "spec" bodywork required in Sprint
Cup. The Hot Idea? The Detroit manufacturers want their "pony"
cars to be made eligible for the Sprint Cup in 2010, with stock bodywork
dimensions, no less. They want more of a direct connection between what
they run in NASCAR and what they sell on the street. That means putting
all of the CoT safety developments within the production body dimensions
of the Camaro, Mustang and Challenger, with an entry from Toyota to be
determined. It also means a return to NASCAR's old days, when every race
weekend's technical inspection became a forum for lobbying and intense
carrying-on by the manufacturers searching for an advantage. The
reality? NASCAR got wind of this idea at Indy and suggested that the
Nationwide Series would be a better forum for "pony" cars, but
the manufacturers have already dismissed that idea out of hand. They want
their "pony" cars to have a raison d'etre, and one way to
do it is to race them in NASCAR, which would do wonders to enhance their
marketing programs. That's why the manufacturers want them in Sprint Cup
by 2010. NASCAR, on the other hand, feels a nightmare coming on while
envisioning trying to balance the manufacturers' competitiveness with
each other on the track. They better get used to it.

2. Elevate the technology. This is something that NASCAR better
get on board with, because the manufacturers are more than adamant about
it. They're tired of NASCAR's head-in-sand approach when it comes to
applying technology to Sprint Cup. On the manufacturers' wish list? Direct
fuel-injection, overhead cams and alternative fuel. And that means
walking away from "spec" engines too - and doing away with the
common bore centers that NASCAR is requiring. And the fact that NASCAR
just went to unleaded racing fuel not long ago isn't cutting it with
Detroit, either. They're thinking E85 instead. The reality? NASCAR
will argue that these kinds of changes will add to the cost for the
teams, but that argument isn't likely to hold water with the Detroit
manufacturers. NASCAR's "yester-tech" comfort zone with 60s
automotive technology will have to finally be put out to pasture, if
they want the Detroit manufacturers to stay interested, that
is.

3. A total reevaluation of the road racing program. Right now
NASCAR has two road races on their schedule, but two of the three Detroit
manufacturers want to add at least two more road races to the
schedule without adding to the total number of races (see the next point
below). Not only that, these manufacturers want all-new cars mandated for
the road races, meaning that special cars would have to be built just for
the road racing events. What these cars would look like and what their
specifications would be is yet to be determined, but suffice to say
there's room for a radical interpretation with this aspect of Detroit's
NASCAR "wish" list. The reality? One of the reasons
NASCAR went to their vaunted CoT was to eliminate the need for having to
build different cars for different tracks (super speedways, intermediate
ovals, short tracks, road races, etc.), so this proposal is likely to meet
intense pushback from NASCAR management. But then again, if cooler heads
prevail in Daytona Beach, they might just realize that if the
manufacturers are enthused about this then it might just be better to go
with the flow, because the alternative is not looking so appealing at
this point.

4. Cut the schedule. To the manufacturers this is a
"no-brainer." You want to cut costs? Then cut the number of
races, which will allow the manufacturers to reduce their overall
expenditures. One manufacturer in particular has already suggested
eliminating at least four races from the overall schedule, while
adding two more road races, which means effectively cutting
six existing races from the schedule. The easiest solution to get
there? Do away with the double visits to certain tracks during the
season. The reality? Them's fighting words in Daytona Beach.
Nobody messes with their schedule and nobody tells them
what to do when it comes to their tracks. We'll see about that.

5. Eliminate the truck series. The implosion of the casual-use
pickup truck market in the U.S. does not bode well for NASCAR's truck
series. And the fact that NASCAR hasn't been able to land a sponsor to
replace Craftsman doesn't bode well for the truck series either. The
Detroit manufacturers wouldn't mind if NASCAR's truck series went
bye-bye. As a matter of fact, one of the manufacturers has already let it
be known that they're as good as through with the truck series. The
reality? NASCAR may not have much choice here.

6. Make the Nationwide Series a true driver development series.
The majority of the Detroit Three want the Nationwide Series to be
strictly a driver development series, which means Sprint Cup drivers
wouldn't be allowed to compete. Sounds simple enough, right? The
reality? NASCAR doesn't take too kindly to people telling them what
they can or cannot do when it comes to a competitive aspect in one of
their series, but who knows? Once NASCAR gets use to grappling with all
of these other ideas from the manufacturers, this might be the easiest
one to go along with.

These are the key proposals - at least the "high hard ones"
anyway - that the Detroit Three plan on discussing with NASCAR in the
next few weeks.

One thing you can be sure of in all of this? It's going to get very
interesting from here on out.

Editor's Note: You can hear The Autoextremist in a very
interesting podcast on LiveFastRacing.com (a very cool web
site/motorsports talk show, by the way), in a wide-ranging interview
covering the current status of the Detroit automakers and the latest on
the Detroit Three and the future of their involvement with NASCAR.
Peter's segment starts about 17 minutes in if you're pressed for time,
and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank The Duke and Co. for
having Peter on their show.

Publisher's Note: In our continuing series celebrating
the "Golden Era" of American racing history, here is another image from
the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Ford Racing Archives)Riverside, CA, 1965. AJ Foyt in his Holman & Moody-prepared Ford
in practice for the Riverside 500 NASCAR race. This is from A.J.'s web
site: "In 1965, he broke his back, fractured his ankle and sustained
severe chest injuries in a NASCAR stock car race on the road course at
Riverside, California. The track doctor pronounced him dead at the scene
but fellow driver Parnelli Jones saw movement and revived him..."
A.J. entered the Daytona 500 28 times between 1963 and 1992, winning the
race in 1972 in the famous No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury. A.J. won 67 Indy
Car races in his career, is one of only three drivers to win the Indy 500
four times (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977), and he remains the only driver in
history to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of Le
Mans.